Canada dives to four World Series medals on home soil

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June 1, 2014

Canada’s fabulous four delighted a Windsor crowd by diving to four World Series medals this weekend.

On Friday, Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion won gold in the 10-metre synchro platform event. The pair finished comfortably ahead of Great Britain and Australia respectively. Canada is now fourth in the overall World Series ranking.

“It’s really incredible to win an international gold medal at home. It’s something we don’t experience very often. Everything we worked on in practice showed in our performance today. It’s very motivating for our big events coming up this summer.” – Meaghan Benfeito from diving.ca

In the 3-metre synchro springboard competition, Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware registered a personal best total score. With it, they took the powerful Chinese to the final dive. Wang Han and He Zi edged the Canadians by 0.15 points for the gold. Italy finished third. Abel and Ware sit third overall in World Series rankings.

“Every dive went very well and we feel great to get a points record. We’ve never been this close to a top Chinese team before.” – Pamela Ware from diving.ca

All four women are gunning for the Diving World Cup and Commonwealth Games this summer.

In individual 3-metre springboard on Saturday, Jennifer Abel held form and won a bronze behind two Chinese divers. Pamela Ware was fifth in the event, but is still two spots ahead of Abel when it comes to overall rankings, (4th and 6th).

It was Abel’s first individual medal this season.

“It was super important for me to get that medal. This is where I want to be at this point in the season. I had a difficult start but the work I’ve put in is showing and I’m gaining more confidence.” – Jennifer Abel from diving.ca

Photo: Vaughan Ridley

Roseline Filion rounded out the competition Sunday afternoon by winning bronze in 10-metre. Again, two Chinese occupied the higher steps on the podium. Filion is ranked third in the world.

History will be made in 2016 when Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hosts the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, marking the first time that a South American country will welcome the world to an Olympic Games. It is also just the third time that the Games will be held in the southern hemisphere, following Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000.